Welcome to Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire

Find out how we can help you by watching this video

Our aim is to improve health and social care services in Central Bedfordshire.

To do this we require up-to-date information about local doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, dentists, pharmacies, opticians, social care, emergency care and community based health teams. With this, we are able to inform, liaise, influence and, if necessary, challenge decisions and plans.

For all of this, we need your help!

Please help us by sharing your experiences of all or any of these services by clicking on the button below.

Tell us when things are going well and when they’re not, so we can do something about it.

Read our Winter Newsletter

‘JUST ASK’ 2017 Report

We have published our review of last year’s ‘JUST ASK’ project. As in previous years, Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire worked in close partnership with Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC), Aragon Housing Association and other key stakeholders, including third sector organisations and community social groups, to deliver the ‘Just Ask’ programme.

Read about where we visited, who we met and how the project has helped support local people.

Would you like to share your experience of health & social care on film?

The Bedfordshire, Luton & Milton Keynes (BLMK) Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) are seeking to film real life patient experiences. They would like to use these stories to inform their plans, to help develop services that meet the needs of a growing and diverse population, and transform health and social care across the BLMK area.

You can choose to be filmed or have your story told by an actor. Click HERE to find out more.

Take part in our Musculoskeletal (MSK) Survey

Circle MSK has invited Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire to conduct an independent patient experience survey of the MSK service delivered across Bedfordshire, to understand current service delivery from the patient’s perspective, with a focus on their current and/or previous experience including how they accessed the service.

Completing this short survey, and giving us your views on the type of service you have received/are receiving, will help Circle MSK to improve services and better meet patient expectations.

Click here to complete the survey – it will just take a couple of minutes!

Closing date: 16th February

Watch our new animation

We’ve created this short video to explain how your stories help us to influence decision makers when planning and delivering health and social care services. It is just one minute long and is ideal for showing on display screens in public settings such as GP surgeries, Dental Practices & hospitals.

Please get in touch if you would like to display our video. Contact details are at the bottom of this page

Help make mental health care better

Healthwatch are launching a new project to understand people’s experiences of mental health care from childhood to old age.

From the experiences people have shared with Healthwatch so far, key issues include:

People do not always get the help they need early enough when they start to develop mental health problems.

It can be difficult to access the right support, because of problems like long waiting times for an initial diagnosis.

Individuals don’t always receive continuous or consistent care when using mental health services, and the support provided is not always focussed on the issues that are most important to them.

Accessing specialist support in a crisis can be challenging.

Healthwatch needs to understand what support people want to manage their mental health in the future. Mental health problems are often hidden and can affect anyone, at any point in their lives – including new parents, children, teenagers, adults and older people.

Recovery College Workshops

The Recovery College is part of the Bedfordshire and Luton Mental Health Academy which is a formal partnership with East London Foundation NHS Trust (ELFT) and the University of Bedfordshire. The College provide workshops that focus on recovery from mental health problems and improving wellbeing. They want to know which topics you would like to see included in future programmes.